Ray says he could have nailed Clinton

WASHINGTON -- Adding a footnote to a controversy the nation has largely left behind, Independent Counsel Robert Ray issued a final report Wednesday on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, saying he had enough evidence to prosecute and convict former President Bill Clinton but did not do so because Clinton had suffered other punishments.

Ray, who was appointed to finish the work of Kenneth Starr, announced on the final day of Clinton's presidency that he would not prosecute the outgoing president. In exchange, Clinton acknowledged that he had testified falsely under oath about his relationship with Lewinsky, agreed to a suspension of his law license for five years and promised to pay a $25,000 fine.

The report essentially brings to an end the seven-year Starr investigation, a probe that examined an array of allegations against Clinton and his administration, including the Whitewater land deals, the mishandling of FBI files, the firings at the White House travel office and the Lewinsky matter.

In all, the inquiry cost taxpayers $70 million, of which $12.5 million was spent on the Lewinsky investigation.

Independent counsels are required by law to issue final reports, and Ray used his to detail his decision to forgo prosecution.

There was enough evidence to prosecute and convict Clinton, Ray said, and there would have been "substantial federal interests" in doing so.

As a counterweight, Ray listed the penalties Clinton endured: He was forced to admit lying, his Arkansas law license was suspended, he was fined $90,000 for contempt of court, he paid $850,000 to settle a sexual harassment case filed by Paula Jones and he was impeached, only the second president to suffer such a fate.

"Based upon a consideration of all these factors, the independent counsel determined he would exercise his discretion to decline criminal prosecution of President Clinton," Ray wrote. "This investigation, begun more than three years ago, is now closed."

He added, "President Clinton's conduct was indeed serious, but President Clinton already suffered serious, and in the independent counsel's view, sufficient sanctions."

Clinton's attorney, David Kendall, dismissed the final report.

"The $70 million investigation of President Clinton from 1994 to 2001 was intense, expensive, partisan and long," said Kendall, a critic of the investigation from the outset. "There's still no Whitewater report, and there's nothing new in this report. It's time to move on."

Many credit Ray, who took over from Starr in late 1999, with restoring order and method to a chaotic, sprawling investigation.

Ray has already issued reports on the White House travel office matter and the mishandling of FBI files, finding no cause for prosecuting anyone.

The prosecutor has also completed work on the Whitewater land deal, the matter that prompted Starr's appointment in 1994, but that document has not been released.

Ray is considering a run for Senate in his native New Jersey, and Democrats have complained that he has improperly participated in political events while holding his federal prosecutor's job.

"It's not clear what the purpose of the report is other than to promote Robert Ray's Senate campaign, Monica Lewinsky's HBO special and the Paula Jones vs. Tonya Harding boxing match," said Jennifer Palmieri, a former spokeswoman for Clinton.

In Wednesday's report, Ray chose not to rehash the details of the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship that were enumerated in thousands of pages Starr submitted to Congress.

Ray acknowledged that his decision not to prosecute "is one of judgment and is not susceptible to mathematical precision." He suggested the decision had not been an easy one, because he believed Clinton's offenses gravely harmed the legal system and prosecuting him would have deterred others.

But in the end, Ray met with Clinton in the White House Map Room on Dec. 27, 2000, and told the president he would not file criminal charges if Clinton agreed to a suspension of his law license and admitted wrongdoing in the Jones case.

Many of Clinton's opponents have criticized Ray for not prosecuting the former president. Clinton supporters, meanwhile, say it is unfair for Ray to claim he has enough evidence to prosecute Clinton but refuse to test that claim in court.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he accepted the conclusions reached by Ray's office.

"Despite numerous allegations of misconduct, no person in the independent counsel's office was ever found to have committed professional misconduct," said Sensenbrenner, one of the House impeachment "managers" who prosecuted Clinton in the Senate.

"This stands in marked contrast to the findings regarding President Clinton by the House, Judge Wright and the Arkansas bar," Sensenbrenner added, referring to Judge Susan Webber Wright, who hit Clinton with the $90,000 contempt fine.

Ray's report raised again, if only for a day, the names and issues that dominated the headlines for more than a year and led to Clinton's impeachment. He departed from dry legal language to fiercely defend his office, accused by Clinton supporters of ignoring ethical lines and leaking material to the press.

"Unfortunately, we have seen how cynics and political opponents too readily can impugn the integrity of those charged with investigating high-level government officials," Ray wrote.

Starr's detractors, however, were not willing to let that go by. In comments attached to the report, Kendall said, "There is, in fact, probable cause to believe that the (Office of Independent Counsel) engaged in the illegal dissemination of sealed grand jury information."

Lewinsky also filed comments, titled "Prosecutors serving justice or serving just us?" She complained that Starr's investigators had mischaracterized what she told them and had threatened her when she asked for a lawyer.

"The judges of this country may have found that no law was broken; but I will forever contend that the spirit of the law was abused," Lewinsky wrote.

Ray noted that he also chose not to prosecute on two other matters relating to the Lewinsky investigation. A former White House volunteer named Kathleen Willey accused Clinton of fondling her when she came to ask him for a job in 1993, but Clinton denied this and Ray found no proof Clinton was not being truthful.

The Clinton administration also failed to turn over a series of e-mails, some of them related to the vice president's office, during the investigation. Ray concluded there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in this matter, either.

The independent counsel statue, created after the 1970s Watergate scandal, was allowed to expire in mid-1999, with Democrats and Republicans concluding that prosecutors appointed under this system became too zealous and political. Some of the statute's strongest supporters, such as Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, reversed themselves and became opponents.

Many of the independent counsels were controversial, but none attracted quite as much animosity -- and heartfelt support -- as Starr. Ray suggested in the report that people have been too willing to see the independent counsel as an ultimate judge of whether a public figure is good or evil.

"If any one lesson is to be learned from this office's experience, it is that a prosecutor can serve only one function -- to seek justice under the criminal law," Ray wrote in his report. "He or she cannot be, and should not be tasked as, an independent arbiter of ultimate truth."